Process of converting into filaments substances liquefiable by heat.



PATENTED MAR. 27, 1906.

T. J. ZOELLER.

` PROCESS 0F CONVERTING INTO FILAMENT-S SBSTANCES LIQUEFIABLE yBY HEAT. APPLIATIoN FILED J I f vll l Wim/55555;#

Alim/Mey l/l/////" IIIIIIIHIH f lf f UNITEnSrArES PATENT oEEIoEe'y THEoDoEE J. zoELLEE, or NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE, ASSIGNOE To ELECTRIC CANDY MACHINE COMPANY, or NASHVILLE, TENNES- SEE, A 4CORBORNIION OF TENNESSEE.

PROCESS F CONVERTING INTO'FILA'MENTS SUBSTANCES LIQVUEFI'ABLEBY HEAT.

Patented March 27', 1906.

Application iiled January 5, 1905. Serial No. 239,766.

To a/ZZ whom it mag/concern.-

Beit known that I, THEoDoEE J. ZOELLER, a citizen of the United States, residing at Nashville, in the county of Davidson, State of Tennessee, have invented certain -new and useful lImprovements in Processes of Converting into Filaments Substances Liquefiable by Heat; and I hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, such as will enable any peri son skilled inthe art to which it appertains to practice and'use the process.

For the purpose of more readily and clearly explaining my said process, but without any intent to limit myself to the use of any particular mechanism in the practice thereof, I

shall refer to the accompanying drawings, in

which- Figure 1 is a vertical central section of a mechanism which may be used in performing the process. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section on the line 2 2, Fig. 1, looking in the directiony of the arrow. Fig. 3 ris a side elevation of such a device.

ployed in the device illustrated.

Likesymbols refer to like parts wherever y they occur;l

plied Ain liquefying the substance to be oper- 'ated upon has been utilized as necessary heat, the result being that an extravagant amount of lheat energy was uselessly expended. Furthermore, the ratio of the amount and intensity of the heat suppliedto the material operated upon to the quantity of such material has not been controlled, the result being that those substances which are altered or changed at certain critical temperatu'res could not be operated uponto surely y obtain the desired uniformity -of product.

Tor overcome the objections before noted, I supply substantially equal quantities of heat to successive increments of the material operated upon, thus, in effect,maintaining a constant ratio between the amount of material to which heat is supplied and the amount Fig. 4 is a view show- I ing a fragment of the heater-.screenl em-` I `and intensity of such heat, thereafter subjecting such heated material to centrifugal force. For this purpose I prefer to centrifu- 'gally project the material operated upon through a heat' zone or belt in such manner as to withdraw. the material operated upon from the presence of the heat simultaneously with its liquefaction. Y

I will now proceed to describe my rocess with reference to the particular mec anism shown in the drawings, so that others skilled Y in the art to which it appertains may perform the same.

'In the drawings illustrating a form of device suitable for practicing my invention in theconversion of sugar to a iilamentous form A y is a split-sleeve shaft or shaftcoupling adapted to engage the shaft of a suitable mo'- tor (not shown) of any well-known construcv tion; but, if desired, any other means of attachment to the motor may be employed or any-other means of revolving the device may be utilized.

Mounted upon the upperend of the couptween the collars or nuts 1ab 2a, which engage said coupling, is the lower member 1b of the retaining-receptacle B, and said shaft or' shaft-coupling A is also provided with collector or transmitting rings C D, which'are insulated therefrom and from each other by' the insulating-rings 3a la 5a and insulatingspools, tubes, or cylinders 6a 7a or in other suitable manner. The transmitting or collector ring C is preferably electrically connected to the binding-post 1e by means of thewire l", which is embedded in the ring of insulating material 3at and in the insulatingtube 6a, and the transmitting-ring D is connected by the wire ld, which passes through means for the material o Aerated upon, is preferably constructed of a ower member 1b, an upper member 3b, having a centrally-disposed oriiice therein for the introduction of the' material to be operated upon, and an inlingA, and preferably secured thereto be-I IOO termediate or interposed section 2b, the latter being preferably of an insulating material or having an insulating-coating, such as enamel, and having a perforated vertical face and upper and lower lateral flanges within which the ribbon-screen heater is housed; but, if desired, the intermediate section 2b may be omitted, and other means of maintaining the proper spaced or separated relation of the upper and lower sections of the receptacle B may be employed, the heaterscreen G peripherally closing the opening between them and retaining the material to be acted upon. When, however, an intermediate member 2b is employed, the lower lateral flange thereof rests upon the lower member lb of the receptacle B and is secured thereto by the elongated washers lf 1f, which engage such lateral fiange and which are held in position by nuts 2f 2f upon the screws F F, which pass upwardly through the said lower member 1b, by which means the intermediate perforated member 2b may be readily disengaged from the lower member 1b by a partial rotation of said elongated washers should such disengagement be necessary or desirable for cleaning the device or for any other purpose.v The screws F F also pass through the upper member 3b of the receptacle B and serve, through the nuts 3f 3f to retain said upper member in engagement with the upper flange of the intermediate member 2b 5 but, if desired, any other suitable means of connecting the several sections may be employed.

Housed within the intermediate sections and protected by the lateral fianges of the intermediate member 2b of the receptacle B is the heater ribbon-screen G, which is preferably constructed of square wire alternately folded in opposite directions to form a ribbon occupying the space between the lateral flanges of such intermediate member, the openings in such screen being of such size or fineness as to prevent the escape of any of the material to be o erated upon in its raw state or without having been first reduced to a molten or liquid condition; but in lieu of forming the heater ribbon-screen of square wire the same may be formed in other manner-as, for example, by folding a flat band of broad wire in a zigzag manner. The opposite ends lg 2g of the heater-screen G are insulated from each other by the block of insulating material H, in which they are secured, and such ends lg 2g are electrically connected to the binding-posts le and 2e, respectively, preferably by short lengths of wire soldered to the ends of said heaterscreen. The electrical energy supplied to the heater-screen G for the purpose of heating the same may be led in through brushes (not shown) contacting the collector or transmitting rings.

As a matter of information, and not as limitation, I would state that I revolve the containing-receptacle at about two thousand revolutions per minute and form the heaterscreen G of a wire which is square or nearly so in cross-section.

The receptacle B being charged with the material to be operated upon and being revolved rapidly, the material is centrifugally forced into contact with the retaining heaterscreen G, which is simultaneously heated to the proper degree by passing a current of electricity therethrough. Such material as at any instant is contiguous to the retaining heater-screen G is thus reduced to a molten state, in which condition it may escape through the interstices of said screen and be then thrown off in fliform fragments from the periphery of the revolving device.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. The process of converting into filaments substances liqueiiable by heat, which consists in supplying a substantially equal amount of heat to all increments of the material operated upon and subjecting such heated material to centrifugal force.

2. The process of converting into filaments substances liquefiable b y heat, which consists in centrifugally projecting the material operated upon through a heat zone in such manner as to withdraw the material operated upon from the presence of the heat simultaneously with its liquefaction.

3. A step in the process of converting into filaments substances liquefiable by heat, which consists in supplying a substantially equal amount of heat to all increments of the material operated upon.

4. The improvement in the art of making candy, which consists of confining a mass of candy-making material, in rotating said mass and simultaneously heating the outer or peripheral portion thereof to melt the outer parts of the mass of candy-making material, and in permitting the melted portion of the candy-making material to be extruded by centrifugal force.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature, in presence of two witnesses, this 3] st day of December, 1904.

THEODORE J. ZOELLER.

Witnesses:

SAML. S. BRIGGS, A. R. SrrLLERs.

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